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Urge Your State Senator to Vote YES on Privatization Oversight

Government services like the state lottery should not be turned over to private operators without controls. Yet that’s exactly what happened when the only bidder took over the most successful state lottery in the country for $120 million upfront. The “winning” consortium, Northstar, was fired as the operator of Illinois’ lottery in August after missing revenue targets. Now the vendor is struggling with weak sales here.

Though Gov. Christie says he prides his administration on transparency, he inexplicably vetoed S-770, sponsored by Sen. Loretta Weinberg, which would create sorely needed standards for privatization contracts. The bill doesn’t discourage privatization. It simply requires a government agency to demonstrate savings to taxpayers BEFORE a contract is executed. This bill would prevent these contracts from being doled out to politically connected firms at taxpayers’ expense.

Please take a moment now to send the pre-written message below to your state Senator urging him/her to override Gov. Christie’s veto of S-770.